


Zombie Eyed

by Caravans



Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Angst and Feels, Drama & Romance, Eventual Romance, F/M, Psychological Drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-22
Updated: 2019-06-27
Packaged: 2020-05-16 18:10:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19323406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caravans/pseuds/Caravans
Summary: When Clem's trauma comes back to bite her, it completely changes her life. Now she's being sent to Ericson's Boarding School for Troubled Youth, and if she's ever going to get back to being herself again, she'll need to learn to accept help from the people around her, even if those people are:1) Her fiery new roommate with baggage of her own.2) The History Teacher turned impromptu guidance counselor.3) The equally cute and infuriating boy in the room next to hers.





	1. Faint Resemblance

“Well, I reckon you didn't do it.”

The elderly man driving the car finally decided to speak, ruining the quiet atmosphere that they had been maintaining since he had picked up Clementine at the airport. After he had said hello, he had seemingly been content to ignore her, and she had been hoping that he would have kept that up for the rest of the ride. She should have known that she would never be that lucky.

Clem glanced up at the front seat and saw him looking back at her through the rear view mirror, his eyes burrowing into her as he awaited her reply. 

For a few seconds, she thought about just ignoring him, not giving him the satisfaction of a reply. She kept imagining a world where she never said anything, and he just kept staring at her instead of looking up at the road. He’d miss a turn, or get stuck in a rut on the old dirt road, and they’d crash right into a tree. She wasn't sure if they were going fast enough for it, but she kept seeing the car wrapped around the trunk, crushing the both of them with it, and it almost seemed like that would be the best outcome after all this. She would have gotten to take in the view, spend some time looking at the green of the forest rolling past her, and she wouldn't even have to step foot inside of Ericson.

Eventually though, common courtesy, mixed with just a hint of self preservation, ended up winning out over Clem’s morbid curiosity. 

“Didn't do what, exactly?”

When she replied, the old man smiled like he had just won something, and finally looked away from her, back towards the twisting and turning dirt road ahead of them. 

“Whatever it is they’re sending you to Ericson for. Most of the kids I cart out here are begging me to turn around by now, telling me ‘its not their fault’”. 

“It’s supposed to be a school. You make it sound like a prison, or something.”

“You know, you might be right. All the scared kids, after all these years, must be rubbing off on me. Most of them, with the way they talk, you’d think it was a death sentence.” He chuckled a little when he said that, which seemed like a bad sign to Clem. Usually, if someone laughs after saying ‘Death Sentence’, it’s a red flag. Pretty much regardless of the circumstances. 

“Is it really that bad?” 

“Honestly? I have absolutely no idea. I just drive the shuttle to the airport and back, whenever there’s an out of state kid coming in.”

“There was this one kid quite a few years ago now,” he continued along. “Who was sitting right where you are. He was a total wreck. Kept crying, shaking, begging to be put back onto the plane he had just gotten off and taken back home. He kept saying the whole thing was a big mistake, and he had been framed, and he didn't do it.”

“The little shit had blown up his family’s garage with a homemade bomb! The whole thing had made the national news. They caught him red handed, watching the place burn down. I think he’s still at Ericson, actually. I’d avoid a ‘Mitch’ if I was you.”

“Duly noted.”

So Ericson had an explosives expert. It sounded absolutely ridiculous, but in a weird way, it sort of aligned with her own mental image of the place. Ericson: a school for ‘Troubled Youth’. The social worker who had first told her about the place had handed her a flowery brochure, with dumb, cartoony lettering and a painfully bright yellow and blue colour scheme. Inside were pictures of regular looking classrooms, regular looking kids, and regular looking teachers, all bookended by motivational crap like “A Place for Building a Better You”. None of the pictures really fit the name, though. The promise of whatever qualified for a ‘Troubled Youth’ was way more tantalizing, and it made her imagination run wild in all the worst ways. Imagine it.

Hallways lined with cages that were stuffed with feral kids, growling at anyone who walked by. Entire classrooms of empty husks that had been masquerading as people this whole time, staring at a blackboard while a thin line of drool ran out of the side of their mouth. And now pyromaniacs that were throwing sticks of dynamite at anyone dumb enough to get too close. 

All of the losers and the freak shows hidden away in the middle of Nowhere, West Virginia. And now she was going to be a part of it. 

When it came down to it, Clementine didn't really believe a single word that any of the social workers or guidance counselors had said about this place. All this talk about how it would be good for her development, and help her come to terms with her loss, felt entirely fake to her. Helping her and the rest of the weirdos here was always going to be a secondary goal. It was really about quarantining them away from the regular kids, so they couldn't drag them down too. 

“You never really told me one way or the other, miss.” The driver said, starting up the conversation again. “Did you do something? Do you deserve to be going all the way out here?”

Clem thought about his question, biting her lip, going over all the little things that had led to her being dropped off at Ericson. Mostly, she thought about Sarah. It had been an accident, of course. Sarah was a big, neurotic bundle of insecurities, but she was also the closest thing Clem had ever had to a best friend. She had been going through another Episode, when she had hurt Sarah; she wasn't been seeing things right. But all the same, she had done the damage with her own two hands, she hadn't been able to snap out of it. Ultimately, the blame had to fall on her. 

That didn’t mean she was going to tell some talkative, nosy shuttle driver all the details, though. 

“I’d rather just not talk about this.”

“If you say so.” His happy go lucky attitude melted away from his face, before clearing his throat and continuing. “All the same, I’d like to offer you a word of advice.”

Somehow, Clem had the feeling that she wasn't going to be able to turn him down. 

“A lot of kids, like the ones I've been mentioning for example, come here with their mind already made up. They didn't want to move out here; their mom or their dad forced ‘em to, so they’re convinced it’s gonna be terrible. Then, those sad sacks end up staying here for a long time, because they’re the type of kids that never have the right attitude. 

This school, and everything else in life, it all comes down to what you make of it. There’s been plenty of kids who came to Ericson and loved their time here, who went on and had happy, healthy lives. And if you want to be a part of that group, missy, you’re gonna have to have to drop the ‘Doom and Gloom’ act , becau----.”

He kept going, but Clem decided that was right around the point where he wasn't worth listening to. She had had a guidance counselor like that once, right around the time the Episodes had first started. They were constantly preaching a positive mental energy, and happy thoughts, and a bunch of other stuff that had been absolutely useless. It just all felt so fake. There was a reason she felt this way, and it didn't feel fake. It felt big and awful and like it was always threatening to swallow her and everything else around her up. She didn't know how to fix it, or to get rid of it, but she knew that trying to ignore it like all of the adults in her life with their pitying eyes and toothless smiles wanted her to was never going to be the answer. 

Well, whatever. Idiots who didn't understand or know her who thought they had all the answers wasn't a new problem. It was just irritating, and Clem had become fantastic at tuning it out. 

Just as the sun was starting to set, an absolutely ancient looking iron wrought gate came into view, emblazoned with the boarding school’s name and crest, announcing to everyone that they had arrived. Clem saw the walls next, built high and covered in vines and moss, in certain sections. The whole place felt like it was about to be swallowed up by the wilderness surrounding it -- like it never should have been there in the first place. 

“Well,” the driver said as the gate slowly opened up for them, and the car rolled to a stop. “Welcome home.”

 

…

 

The car started backing out as soon as Clem had stepped out of it, and she was left alone with the man who had apparently been the one to open up the gate.

“Hello! You must be Clementine.” He offered up a handshake, and Clem hesitantly returned it. 

“That’s me.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Lee. Or Mr. Everett, if any of the other faculty asks.” He smiled at his own comment, and there was something immediately reassuring about it. Usually, I’m the English and History teacher, but today I’m doubling as your Ericson tour guide. Here, let me get that. You've probably had a longer day than I have.” Mr. Everett grabbed Clem’s luggage bag, and started walking back through the courtyard, motioning for her to follow along. “Was your flight in okay?”

She thought back to a few hours before, to the tiny, cramped cabin, where everyone was too close to each other and it felt like the walls were going to close in and crush everyone on board at any moment. “I guess. I've never actually flown before today, so there’s not much to compare it to.”

“Well, that’s not too odd. You’re still young, there will be tons of time for you to travel. I had barely done anything by your age.” 

“So, the tour. Fair warning, but we’ll have to keep it short. Usually we make new student arrivals more of an event, get more of the student body involved, but you’re a little unique. ”

“Unique how?”

“Oh, nothing bad. We just don’t typically receive students during the middle of a term, so we had to improvise a little. I’m filling in for the Headmaster, for example. He was… indisposed, this evening. And, just between you and me, I think you got off lucky. He’s a little strict with the students.” 

“So, we’ll be briefly checking out a few classrooms, as well as all the specialty and extracurricular areas. That’ll include the music room, the track field and soccer field, the kitchen, and finally, the greenhouse and the science lab. Are you much of scientist, Clementine?”

“I... wouldn't say it’s a strong subject of mine.”

“Thank God. I was always terrible at it, as well. Don’t tell Ms. Martin I said that, though.”

Clem let out a rare chuckle. “I’ll do my best.”

As they went through the school, room by room and wing by wing, Clem kept getting lost in her own thoughts. The last thing the elderly driver had said to her, about Ericson being her ‘home’, was really sticking with her, irritating her in a way she hadn't expected. Forget about the fact that she had never even been here before, the entire concept of a home had become so foreign to her over the past eight years.

The word just implied so much… sentimentality. Your home was a place you were supposed to feel safe, to be totally comfortable in. After her parents had gone away and she had had to say goodbye to the house with the treehouse her dad had built for her, nothing came close to capturing that same feeling. Since then, Clem had spent so much time switching between places that none of them ever never had the chance to stick out to her. There was always another reason for a place to end up only being temporary. Whether she would have an Episode and it would be too much for the people around her to handle, or her current caretaker just ended up coming to the conclusion that the ‘fit wasn't right’, something would eventually give and she’d be back in the hands of an increasingly frustrated social worker. Sure, there had been places she had liked — like with Sarah, before she had ended up ruining that too — but nothing ever came close to a real home. 

The driver was wrong. Ericson would be exactly the same as every other place that came before it. Not a home, or even a permanent residency, just another footnote in her life, filed under “Places I've Stayed At” with a thousand other addresses. 

Well, maybe not exactly the same, Clem reasoned, as they finally reached the school’s dorm wing. She had certainly never lived inside of a school before. The quick walk through Ericson had revealed that Clem had thankfully been a little off base when she was imagining it on the drive up. There were no cages lining the walls, just the usual motivational posters and advertisements for different clubs and teams. The mundanity of it all was comforting. If you ignored the fact that it was in the thick of a forest, it felt the same as the public schools she had attended, back in and around Atlanta.

“And finally, the dorm. Classes are conducted in the morning and afternoon, so the majority of the students should be here at this time of night. We stand a good chance of running into a few of them.” Mr. Everett said as they shuffled down the hallway. Clem could have figured that out without him saying anything. As soon as they were through the doors, she was basically experiencing sensory overload, thanks to all of the noise. She heard kids shouting and laughing from behind closed doors, and caught a glimpse of a few kids dashing around the corner of the hall, chasing after each other. All of the sounds seemed to bounce off and around the hallway, echoing around the both of them. Clem felt her stomach drop. If it was always like this, it was going to be absolutely impossible for her to relax, or even get to sleep. 

“All of the students stay in this wing, of course. There’s communal washrooms on each floor, so that makes 4 in total. I’ve heard less than stellar things about the hot water, so I’d recommend getting there early if you prefer showering in the morning.”

“How many students are there?” Clem asked.

“Well, the school’s technically equipped to handle up to 100 occupants at any one time, but there’s nowhere near enough room or staff for that. With you joining us, there’s 54 currently living here, of varying ages”. 

Each of the doors they were passing had little whiteboards hung up on them, with two names written on each one. Clem read them all as they passed by:

Mitch and Willy

Therissa and Ruby

Aasim and Jasper

Every name was clearly written by that person, and it was interesting to see how different some of the penmanship was. Willy’s for instance, was barely legible, while Aasim’s was some of the neatest lettering Clem had ever seen.

“So this dorm has both guys and girls living in it?” Clem asked. 

“Correct, its a co-ed living space. That’s mostly out of necessity really, since there’s only one dormitory area. Ericson was originally an all-boys academy, actually.” Mr. Everett looked over his shoulder, back to Clem. “That’s not going to be an issue, is it?”

“Probably not.”

“That’s good. We've had a few students who ran into some problems with it. If anything like that comes up, come find me and we’ll see what we can do about it.”

“Okay.”

They reached the stairs, and started climbing. “You’ll be on the 4th floor, rooming with Violet. She’s been without a roommate for a while now, so it’ll be a big adjustment for both of you.”

“I have a roommate?” Clem said, unable to keep the shock out of her voice. How had no one thought to mention that, while they were telling her about this place? How had no one warned the school “Is there any way I could have my own room?”

“Oh, I wouldn't worry too much. Violet can occasionally take a while to warm up to new people, but eventua--” 

“It’s not Violet, it’s me!” Mr. Everett looked shocked when Clem raised her voice. She hadn't meant to yell at him. He had been nice so far, and she didn't really want to cause him any trouble. There just didn't seem to be any other way around it. “Look I… didn't they tell you guys why I was sent here?”

“It's just not safe. I don’t want to end hurting anyone, again.” Her outburst had given way to the fear she had been trying to hide, and it showed up, plain is day on her face. “Please.”

“And you’re not going to. You have to trust us here at the school. Trust me.” Mr. Everett put the luggage bag he was still carrying down, and crouched to lower himself to her eye level. He reached over and put his hand on her shoulder, and despite herself, she didn’t shrug him off. “You have to let us try to handle things. It’s what Ericson was built for.” 

She took a few deep breaths, like her mom would always tell her to do when she was upset. It was one of those old habits she had maintained, ever after all this time, and it still helped when the weight of the world felt like it was too heavy on her shoulders. 

“If I’m going to trust you, you have to listen to me. I can’t share a room with someone.”

He thought about it, seemingly weighing the situation over in his mind. “There’s nothing I can do tonight, Clem. Maybe tomorrow, if you still feel like it’s a problem, we can work something out. Okay?”  
It wasn't okay. It seemed like a recipe for disaster. But it also seemed like the best she was going to get, so she nodded her head, and steeled herself for what was going to be a rough first night at Ericson. 

“Okay. Which room is mine?”


	2. The Approaching Curve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clem meets a few of her fellow classmates, and tries to survive her first real day at Ericson.

Ever since the death of her father, Sarah had been desperately looking for someone to cling to. That was why, when she was told that someone else her age would be moving to the group home she was staying in, she knew she had to make the most of the opportunity. 

She spent weeks preparing for the new girl’s arrival. She had rearranged her room so it could better accommodate two people living there, and had hung up a banner with the words ‘Welcome Clementine’ written on it. She went through her collection of books, trying to think of what she might like before selecting a few and wrapping them up. As they got closer and closer to the date she was supposed to arrive, she kept agonizing over what she was going to wear, constantly changing her mind. It was going to be like a little Christmas, all on its own for the both of them, and everything had to be perfect. 

Sarah wouldn't ever forget how Clem had looked when she walked in. As she watched her face transition from reservation, to confusion, and then finally to a quiet little smile, Sarah felt a pride in herself that she had been missing for a really long time. 

“Clementine! I've been so excited to finally meet you. I can tell that we’re going to be best friends.” Sarah went in for a hug, and even though the girl didn't return it immediately, she also didn't freeze up or push her away. For now, at least, that was going to be enough. Sarah had found her person.

…

As soon as they started walking again, Clementine could just feel how the atmosphere in the hallway had changed. It was too quiet now, like all of the air had been sucked out, leaving it strangely empty. She cringed at how stupid she had been, to shout out in the open like that. Everyone had probably heard her, and she could feel them looking at her through the peepholes of their dorm rooms, wondering why the new kid had felt the need to freak out before she had even been in the school for an hour. Her new room was close to the end of the hall, and she had never been more relieved to reach a place she didn't even want to go to before.

Mr. Everett knocked on the door a few times, but after waiting a few seconds and not hearing any reply, he got out a set of keys and unlocked the room, letting Clem get past him to check out her new living space. Violet was nowhere to be seen, so she had an unfiltered view, able to focus entirely on the actual room itself. It was smaller than she had been expecting. There was just enough space for the beds and a couple desks to be stuffed into either side of the room. The only other structural difference between the two sides was a closet that was tucked away into the bottom right corner of the room, with the two sides seemingly sharing the small nightstand that was directly opposite the door, in front of the room’s only window. 

The left side, clearly being favored by her new roommate, had posters and Polaroid pictures decorating the wall, while the right side of the room was mostly barren. Actually, not quite -- it looked like Violet was using the extra mattress as a place to put her clothes. There was a small piles worth, unfolded and spread across the small bed. Clem’s nose crinkled up at the sight. She was really hoping those were all clean. 

Her teacher walked in behind her, and set Clem’s bag down at the foot of her bed. “Well, what do you think?”

“It’s a little small.”

“You’re not wrong. Small’s not necessarily a bad thing, though.”

“Isn't it?”

“Eh, it’s debatable. At least the view is nice, since you’re facing the courtyard. The kids on the other side of the hall can pretty much only see the treetops.”

Mr. Everett sighed before continuing. “I’m sorry about the mess. We had told Violet to clean this place up, but it looks like she didn't really follow through.”

“It’s just clothes, I guess. Don’t worry about it.”

“Either way, I feel bad about it. Let me move them over to her side of the room for you. It’s not really fair that you can’t even sit down on the bed.” 

He spent the next few minutes scooping handfuls of clothes up and gingerly placing them on to Violet’s bed, being careful not to disturb anything anymore than was necessary. When the task was done, he asked Clem one more time if she had any questions, and then handed her a key to the room, as well as a small leather bound journal that had the school’s name emblazoned on the front.

“You’ll find your class schedule written down in there. There’s a few prerequisites that everyone has to take -- Math and English, and most of the Sciences, but you’ll get the chance to pick a few electives later on. Stuff like Art, Music, Phys Ed. Sound good?”

“Sure.”

“I’ll leave you be for now. My office is in the admin building if you need me. Second floor, big red door with my name written on it, you can’t miss it. You come find me if you need anything, okay?”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Good. And Clem,” Mr. Everett was back in the hallway now, holding the door open to continue talking to her. He was rubbing the back of his neck, suddenly looking like he was struggling to find the right words. “Thanks for putting up with the sleeping arrangement, at least for tonight. I know that wasn't easy.”

“Yeah… you too, I guess. Thanks I mean.” Clem couldn't meet his gaze when she replied. She knew it wasn't intentional, but the way he had said that just left her feeling even worse about earlier. He was being way too considerate, especially after she had argued with him about something that he probably had no say it, or control over. It was hard to find people who were kind just for the sake of being kind, but he seemed like one of them, at least for now. 

“Have a good night.” Mr. Everett said, as he left the room, the door shutting behind him with a heavy thud.

...

 

For the first time since she had boarded the plane back in Georgia, Clem was alone. She was momentarily at a loss for what to do. Part of her wanted to explore the school grounds in more depth on her own, but it didn’t seem like it would be worth giving up the solitude. Unpacking was probably the prudent choice, but would it would just be a massive waste of time if she did end up switching rooms. Plus, a part of her was superstitious enough that unpacking seemed like a great way to end up jinxing the room changing process entirely, so that was out of the question.

If she was being truthful, she didn't feel like doing anything, other than curling up into a ball on her new bed and trying to get to sleep. That was a losing battle, though, and she knew it. If she was still for too long, she’d get lost in her thoughts, stuck on all the past mistakes that had led her to Ericson. She needed a distraction, something to keep busy. 

Snooping seemed like the easiest thing to do, so Clem settled on that. Nothing incredibly invasive, just looking at the things she had noticed earlier, that were hung up on the wall. There were the usual band and movie posters, but Clem was much more interested in the more personal items. The pictures all seemed to be have been taken around the school grounds, and most of them prominently featured the same two people -- a redheaded girl who exuded confidence, even from a photograph, and a more sullen looking blonde, who was much less comfortable in front of the camera. They must have been attending Ericson together for a while now; they were aging in front of Clem’s eyes, starting as preteens in the earliest photos, and looking like they were around her age in the newest ones. One of them must have been Violet, but they were both such staples across every image that it was impossible to tell which one she was. She briefly debated the hypothetical merits of each person. Which one she get along with more? Would either of the girls end up liking her at all?

As Clem was leaning in towards one of the photos, she heard a lock turn in the door, and someone entered the room. Clem recognized her as the blonde girl from the pictures, and realized that she must have been Violet. She had stopped in the doorway, and her eyes had widened when she caught sight of Clem perched over her sleeping space. Realizing how suspicious she must have seemed, Clem quickly backed away, as far away from her as the small space would allow.

"You touched my stuff." It wasn't a question, but a statement, delivered with an underlying cold fury just beneath the surface of her words. The girl’s eyes had narrowed, looking like she could come marching forward to attack Clem at any moment.

"That was Mr. Everett, actually." Clem tried to explain, her words coming out too quickly, running into one another. “And just your clothes. I was just… looking. At the pictures.

"Oh yeah. The 50 year old history teacher going through my clothes is a lot better.” 

Violet moved towards her bed, and after taking a while to inspect everything and not finding anything amiss, started to fold her clothes. Her shoulders slumped, like she had lost the urge to fight and had moved on to just being annoyed. 

‘I guess that means they were clean, at least.’ Clem thought to herself, somewhat bitterly. While she was happy to have discovered that Violet wasn’t a complete slob, she couldn’t help but feel like she had blown her chances of having a good relationship with her completely. 

New people were always horrifying. There was an existential dread that came along with every new introduction to someone, trying to measure what kind of person they were by the subtlest little ticks and habits they had, and knowing that they were doing the exact same thing to you. And everyone had a different scale for deciding what made a person worthwhile or not, making it impossible to please everyone, or really to even know in the moment if you were doing the right thing.

Looking like she was about to start stealing her roommate’s stuff was uniquely bad as a first impression. The kind of thing that was hard to come back from, if it was even possible at all. 

"It’s Clementine, right?" Violet asked, not turning around to look at her as she talked.

"Yeah. Clem’s okay, too."

"I’m Violet. But I’m sure you already know that."

“... Yeah.”

The conversation stalled there, with Clem not being sure what to say. A thousand half formed questions and apologies died before they could leave her lips, each one seeming like a bad idea. Violet probably wouldn't enjoy answering a bunch of unsolicited questions, and there was just as good of a chance that an apology could infuriate her even more. The air turned toxic as an awkwardness settled in between the two of them, and neither of them did anything to try to cut through it. 

The rest of the night dragged on, and nothing between the two of them changed. The last remaining vestiges of the sun disappeared below the school’s exterior wall, and Violet turned out the light, not bothering to ask Clem if she was alright with that. Despite Clem’s apprehension about sharing a room with someone again, her fatigue won out after such a long day, and she fell asleep quickly after the darkness had settled in around her. 

As far as her physical body was concerned, worrying about Violet’s safety was a secondary concern.

 

…

Clem woke up early the next day. She had taken Mr. Everett’s warning about the bathroom showers to heart, and had decided to get an early jump on the queue. She grabbed a towel, a change of clothes, and the bag toiletries that she had packed, and then tiptoed through the room and out the door, trying to be as quiet as possible. She gently guided the thick, wooden door back to its frame as she closed it, hoping that she hadn't woken up Violet as she was getting ready to go. 

The bathroom had seen better days, with the yellowing white floor tiles cracked in a million different places, but it smelt like antiseptic and was mercifully empty, so it worked perfectly for Clem. She stepped into one of the three shower stalls and turned the water on, testing the heat out with the tips of her fingers before undressing and getting in. For a while, she just stood under the water, feeling the heat soak into her, letting it wash away the dirt and grime of yesterday.

Going through the motions of the grooming patterns she had been following for her whole life helped her start to uncoil her stressed out brain. She had been stuck on all of the big, cataclysmic questions yesterday, unable to pry her mind away from them. It had left her angry, and on her guard. Prone to making stupid decisions. She wasn't supposed to be like that. Keeping cool even when everything was falling apart had always been a strong suit of hers. 

As Clem turned off the water and grabbed for her towel, she was determined to get that part of her back in check. She was going to go back to her room, commit her schedule to memory, and then she was going to get through the day. Get back to what she was best at: surviving. 

…

Survival didn't necessarily mean that you were actually enjoying yourself, unfortunately.

First days at a new school were always awful. Clem’s life had been constant starts and stops, and it had given her many opportunities to be the new girl. She knew what it was like to go to a new place, not knowing anyone, being unsure of where she stood, and she mostly made it out okay once it was all over and done with. Even with all that in mind, Ericson had been a special kind of hell, so far. 

The whole school was this constantly churning mass of nervous energy, and it made Clem feel dizzy to even try to organize it in any meaningful way. There were too many new faces to remember, too many names to keep track of, all coming at her way too fast. All of the kids here knew each other way too well for her to be seamlessly integrated into it, leaving Clem feeling left out before she could even try to join in. Every snippet of a conversation she overheard just sounded like a loosely connected set of in jokes that was impossible for her to decipher without context. 

Whenever someone did speak with her, yelling out or running up to her as she was making her way through the hall, it was less of a conversation and more like she was a novelty act, with each person asking her 5 questions all at once or essentially just speaking at her, stating facts. 

“You’re new!”

Well yes. I am. 

“You weren't here before!”

Wow. How’d you notice?

“I hope you’re cool.”

Me too, kid. Me too. 

She didn't even get a chance to interject with any of the quips, because someone would always rush over top of the original stranger, only to ask the exact same questions. 

And then there was the other group of kids, who would start speaking to each other in quiet little whispers as soon as they saw her enter a room. She could just imagine the rumours that were bound to be made up about the mysterious new kid, showing up halfway through the semester. Every time they would look in her direction when they thought she wasn't paying attention, she had to bite her tongue to keep from saying something snarky back. 

At least the actual classes had been fine, so far. Starting the day off with Math and Biology seemed unnecessarily cruel, but neither of the teachers made her get up and introduce herself to the room, and having an authority figure around forced the other kids to calm down a bit, so it was a fair trade off. 

There wasn't enough students to justify each grade having their own class, so they had been broken up into three separate age groups: 11 and under, 12 to 15, and 16 and up. It felt like a poor way of handling things, but Mr. Everett had seemed pretty sure that it was working out well for a lot of the kids there when she had brought up her concerns yesterday. The long term effectiveness of Ericson’s teaching methods wasn't really worth getting caught up in anyway. In the short term, it meant that the teachers were more preoccupied here than they would usually be in a regular classroom, with lots of backtracking over concepts so the younger students could get a good grasp on them, and it gave Clem plenty of time to relax and reset. 

It made for a steady, boring day, and Clem would have considered that a success, if that’s all the day had ended up being. Just before her third class of the day was set to start, however, something changed.

One of the other kids in her age group picked the seat next to her, and started to talk.

”So, just a quick question, if that’s okay. Do you always not talk, or is that a today thing?"

Clem raised an eyebrow at the boy, trying to take stock of him. The question should have been rude, but he had said it with such unbridled enthusiasm that it was hard to tell what he was actually going for. He was sitting sideways in his chair, leaning in towards her, close enough that she could count the freckles dotting his face, or reach out a hand and pull at one of his braids that was dangling in front of his face

She opened her mouth to reply, but he kept going before she had the chance to say anything.

"That question probably sounds ridiculous. But I was really excited to meet the new student. I've been stuck in this school so long that I haven’t met a new person in months, and I have a whole bunch of questions about the outside world. All the important things, like, ‘is everything still terrible about the United States’, and ‘how was the new Marvel movie’. But I've been sort of watching you -- not in a creepy way, I promise -- and you've pretty much been silent all day. Not really talking to anybody. Actively sitting in the back corner of the classroom. And hey, all of that is super okay if it's what you want to be doing. If that’s the case I can just get up and leave you be, and we’ll pretend I was never here, but I just wanted to come ask you myself before I decided one way or the other. So yeah. Do you talk?"

It took Clem a solid 5 seconds after he was done speaking to take everything in. All the while, he kept on looking at her, a little half smirk on his face. He could easily be making fun of her right now, talking to her as part of a bet or a dare he had with the people in the class, but something about him seemed more genuine than that. Clem hoped her instincts were right, and took a little leap of faith, deciding to play along and answer at least one of his questions.

"I've never been a huge fan of the Marvel movies, honestly."

His eyes lit up, and his smirk became a thousand watt smile. Something about that smile made Clem feel lighter than she had in days. 

"Oh come on, don’t be like that. They’re modern day classics."

He was being ridiculous, but it was just the right kind of ridiculous. It made her want to join in, to play along for a little while longer, just to keep it all going.

"The only thing classic about them is the formulaic plot." 

"Maybe it’s formulaic because it works. Good versus Evil, heroes saving the world, that never goes out of style. Anyway, new question. Do you picture yourself as more of a superhero, or villain?"

"I don’t know. Hopefully a hero, I guess."

"Interesting. I’m definitely team bad guy. They’re having way more fun."

“I don’t think that’s actually true. Aren’t they usually kind of mopey? Or way too interested in total world domination to enjoy the little things, at least.”

Instead of replying, the boy next to her started laughing, drawing a few looks from the other students in the classroom. "I’m really happy you talk. This could have been incredibly awkward. Imagine if someone had like, cut out your tongue or something before you had arrived at Ericson. How would I have ever lived it down?"

"It wouldn't have been all bad. Maybe we could have passed notes."

"True, true. But there would be so much extra work involved. Anyway, now that I know you can talk, I have to ask: why have you been hanging out by yourself all day?"

He looked much more serious than he had a moment before, and some small part of Clem felt a little disheartened to realise that all of his earlier jokes had just been an attempt to get her to open up, so he could get back to his original reason for coming over to see her. 

"None of us bite, or anything. Except maybe AJ, but I think that’s more of a reflex thing. And they want to get to know you."

"It wasn't really an intentional choice." Clem said defensively, as she thought about all of the interactions she had had with everyone else up until now. "It’s just hard to introduce yourself to 50 different people when you barely know where you’re going half the time."

The boy across from her considered what she had said, his eyebrows furrowing. “Well, maybe I can help you with that. I know everyone at this school, and also know which classrooms are where. I’m the perfect middle man.”

“You’re pretty quick to offer up your services. You haven’t even properly introduced yourself, yet.” 

“Oh yeah, that’s probably important. See what I mean about not meeting new people? It’s been so long that I’m rusty. I’m Louis.”

“Alright then, Louis. What’s the catch? What do you get in return?”

“Oh, that’s easy. I keep interrogating you about the outside world. The forest around Ericson does a fantastic job of keeping out all sorts of useful information. It feels like we’re on our own little planet sometimes, out here.”

Clem thought about his offer, taking it all in. This whole day she had been desperately wishing for someone to run interference, or to help with all of the rapid fire introductions. The only people she even sort of knew were her new history teacher, and tracking him down to ask for help was a level of pathetic Clem wouldn't have been able to live with, and a roommate who seemed apathetic to her at best, and outright hostile at worst. Louis might have been exactly the kind of person she was looking for.

“Okay. Seems like a fair trade to me. I accept your terms.”

“Perfect.”, Louis practically jumped out of his chair. “Wanna start right now? There’s a whole classroom of people waiting to meet you, you know.”

“Right now I want to learn about” she paused for a moment, looking back down at her schedule. “Geography. The class is supposed to begin in 2 minutes. Seems like a bad time to meet new people.” 

Louis quickly adopted a completely over the top look of confusion, getting a chuckle out of Clem. “Learning. In a school! I've never actually considered trying that. Maybe it’s something to think about. Anyway, we can work with that. How about tonight? I’ll have to cancel the nightly card game, but I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who actually likes them anyway.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Awesome. Meet in front of our rooms, 8pm sharp.”

“Our rooms?” 

“Well, yeah. I guess it makes sense that you didn't notice, but we’re neighbors. My room is right beside yours.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this was more fun to read than it was to write. The early parts really felt like I was pulling teeth out to get the words on the page.
> 
> Thanks for all the nice comments on Chapter One. It's been way too long since I've actually written a fic, and I had forgotten how cool it was to have a community there to support you. Writing is usually such a sad, solitary hobby sometimes, and this really makes for a nice change of pace.
> 
> There's more on the way, so stay tuned...

**Author's Note:**

> There's chapter one in the books. I hope you enjoyed it, and will stick around for the rest of the story.
> 
> I should have more coming soon. 
> 
> More characters who aren't supposed to be at Ericson could be showing up, in later chapters. I'm not writing AU fanfiction to NOT mess with all of the different character timelines.


End file.
